''Rick O'Shay'' is a
Western
Western may refer to:
Places
*Western, Nebraska, a village in the US
*Western, New York, a town in the US
*Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western world, countries that id ...
comic strip created by
Stan Lynde, which debuted as a
Sunday strip on April 27, 1958. The
daily comic strip
A daily strip is a newspaper comic strip format, appearing on weekdays, Monday through Saturday, as contrasted with a Sunday strip, which typically only appears on Sundays.
Bud Fisher's ''Mutt and Jeff'' is commonly regarded as the first daily ...
began on May 19 of the same year.
[''Rick O'Shay'']
at Don Markstein's Toonopedia. from the original on September 29, 2015. It was distributed worldwide through the
Chicago Tribune Syndicate
Tribune Content Agency (TCA) is a syndication company owned by Tribune Publishing. TCA had previously been known as the Chicago Tribune Syndicate, the Chicago Tribune New York News Syndicate (CTNYNS), Tribune Company Syndicate, and Tribune Media S ...
. The final ''Rick O'Shay'' comic strips written and drawn by Lynde were the daily for 7 May 1977 and the Sunday for July 17, 1977. He left the syndicate after a disagreement.
As the syndicate owned the rights to the strip, the popular ''Rick O'Shay'' comic strip was continued by others: Marian Dern (writer),
Alfredo Alcala and Mel Keefer (artists). Publication ended on March 8, 1981.
Characters and story
The strip is set in the Western town of Conniption where Rick O'Shay is the deputy
sheriff, since the town is too small to have a full sheriff. His best friend is gunslinger Hipshot Percussion. Other key characters include gambler Deuces Wilde, dance hall owner Gaye Abandon, physician Dr. Basil Metabolism (and his nurse, Ophelia Pulse), gunsmith and Civil War veteran Cap'n Ball, banker Mort Gage and a boy named Quyat Burp. The neighboring Kyute Indian tribe includes Chief Horse's Neck, his ugly but sweet daughter Moonglow and her persistent suitor Crazy Quilt.
Books
Lynde and his wife formed
Cottonwood Publishing Cottonwood Publishing is now a small press publisher residing in Wolfforth, Texas, established 2019. It is owned and operated by author and secondary teacher Jefferson Marshall and his wife Jordan to publish mainly children's fiction.
Writings by ...
, which later acquired the rights to ''Rick O'Shay''.
[ The company has published reprints, posters, collectibles and a new two-part comic book story, ''The Price of Fame'' (1992), featuring Rick and Hipshot. They reprinted all of the dailies from the beginning up through 1964, except for one week in December 1963. They also published ''A Month of Sundays'' reprinting 60 Sunday strips from the 1970s, 32 of which are in color. Further plans for reprints were put on hold after some of the original artwork was destroyed in a fire.
'']The Menomonee Falls Gazette
''The Menomonee Falls Gazette'' (subtitled "The international newspaper for comic art fans") was a weekly tabloid published in the 1970s by Street Enterprises that reprinted newspaper comic strips from the United States and the U.K. Comic strip ...
'' reprinted dailies from September 24, 1973 to March 13, 1976. ''Comics Revue
''Comics Revue'' is a bi-monthly small press comic book published by Manuscript Press and edited by Rick Norwood. Don Markstein edited the publication from 1984 to 1987 and 1992 to 1996.
As of 2020, it has published more than 350 issues, making ...
'' magazine reprinted strips from the week missing in the Cotonwood books in issue #231, and is reprinting all of the dailies, starting where Cottonwood Publishing left off, in issues #227. They have published all of the Stan Lynde dailies, and are currently publishing the Sundays.[Lynde, Stan, ''Rick O'Shay, Hipshot, and Me– A Memoir'', Cottonwood Graphics, 1990. ]
Style
The backgrounds were realistically drawn; the characters were originally cartoonish, but became more realistic over the years. There are surreal themes mixed in (such as the pun-laden names). By the late 1960s, elements of adventure, philosophy, morality and tragedy — such as Hipshot teetering on the brink of death following a gunfight — were added to the storyline.
Hipshot is frequently referred to as an "outlaw", and in one strip he decided to regain his losses at poker by holding up the local bank. Sometimes in the Sunday strip he is shown alone, on horseback, in the Western background, speaking to his Maker, whom he addresses as "Boss". He does not attend church and prefers to recognize his God in a privately styled fashion.
References
External links
www.stanlyndeauthor.com
nbsp;— Stan Lynde official 'blog
stanlynde.net
nbsp;— Stan Lynde site
{{Tribune Content Agency comics
1958 comics debuts
1981 comics endings
American comic strips
O'Shay, Rick
Fictional gunfighters
O'Shay, Rick
Western (genre) comics
Western (genre) comics characters
O'Shay, Rick